UK: Government wants
to introduce compulsory ID cards Today (3 July) the government put out
a consultation paper on "Entitlement cards" (ID cards
to everyone else).

It is apparent from the Home Secretary's statement in the
House of Commons and in interviews on television that the "consultation"
exercise is simply to see how far the government can go. The
government wants compulsory registration, with criminal sanctions
for those who do not register. The card would, in effect, be
compulsory because without it basic rights would be denied, eg:
access to doctor or hospital, driving licence or passport, bank
account or credit card, unemployment or housing benefit etc.

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, commented:

"This is yet another casualty of the "war on
terrorism". The government unashamedly refers to the need
to exclude refugees and asylum-seekers who are fleeing poverty
and persecution - who are equated in their eyes with potential
terrorists or criminals - to justify ID cards.

Others in Europe should beware because the UK ID card will
be the most technologically advanced in the continent (containing
biometric and other personal data) and will set a standard in
the EU which others will, in time, be expected to match."

"Universal entitlement cards are compulsory IDs: the
Government does not trust its citizens"Liberty 3rd July 2002

John Wadham, director of Liberty:

"The government is taking euphemism to extremes. The
proposed universal entitlement card is a compulsory identity
card by any other name, and they must be open about that if we
are to have the honest debate they have called for. Everyone
will be required to register and to produce the card to prove
their entitlement to services and employment. If you need the
card to get your pension, to see a doctor, or to be allowed to
get a job, then it is a compulsory card.

"This plan exposes the fact the government doesn't
trust its citizens. It wants 60 million of us to register our
identity so it can check up on us, monitor our movements and
decide whether we are entitled to the services we have already
paid our taxes for. ID cards make us suspects not citizens: that's
why all innocent citizens should oppose them.

"The irony is that a Government which trusts us so
little gives us so many reasons not to trust it on this issue.
The Home Secretary says this is not an identity card although
it exists only to establish your identity; it's not compulsory
but you have to have it.

The card will lead to the Government to establish a national
database on all 60 million of us - which the consultation document
already envisages linking too the Government databases. Like
the proposals to allow thousands of bureaucrats to see your email
and telephone communications data, it's about making all our
information available to all government departments - with huge
consequent dangers of misuse.

In recent months, the Government has claimed that a card
will tackle any number of high-profile problems. The reality
is that this vastly-expensive scheme will tackle none of them,
but will have a serious impact on every innocent hard-working
individual in the country.

"Finally, what I can't understand is why my 89 year
old mother should be forced to register, maybe have her fingerprints
taken and have other personal details stored on her card when
she has committed no crime."

Specifics: illegal working and benefit fraud

"The Home Office wants to issue 60 million cards to 'target'
a few thousand people working illegally in this country - the
majority of whom have been lost to the system because of incompetence.
It has also been said the cards will stop benefit fraud. In fact
only a tiny proportion of fraud (less than the costs of the ID
card system) relates to identity. The impact on these problems
will be minimal: the impact on the rest of us could be far greater.

Why should 60 million of us be force to carry cards as a result
of the failures and incompetence by the Home Office and Benefits
Agency?

Secure identity:

these cards will be sold and forged (witness the French experience);
and yet they may even create greater complacency amongst those
trying to protect us. Thousands of cards will be lost or accidentally
destroyed each year and every person without a card will lose
their entitlement to services and become a suspect. The vulnerable
and the inadequate will find that the loss of the card and the
bureaucracy involved in getting a new one will add substantially
to their social exclusion.

We also know that it is those people from ethnic minorities
or who are black who will be the ones most likely and most often
asked to prove their identity.

Foreign experience:

Experience elsewhere shows all too clearly the shortcomings
of ID card systems. European countries still suffer from the
same problems we do - but in many cases with the added serious
social division and discontent that springs from misuse of police
powers relating to ID cards. In Australia, initial 70% popular
support for an identity card evaporated within months as the
real impact of the card on ordinary people became evident. The
scheme was buried.

RESEARCH WARNS THAT GOVERNMENT IDENTITY CARDS WILL BE A GIFT
TO CRIMINALS

Privacy watchdog warns that plans to introduce cards will
be exploited by criminal syndicates

3rd July 2002

For immediate release

The Government's plan to introduce a national ID card, the
consultation for which is scheduled for Parliamentary announcement
today (3rd July) will compound problems of illegal immigration,
fraud and identity theft.

Privacy International, a global privacy and technology watchdog,
has for the past twelve years studied the implications of ID
cards worldwide. It today issued a warning to the UK government
that any national ID card - whether voluntary or mandatory -
will create new opportunities for criminal syndicates and corrupt
officials to increase by several magnitudes the problem of false
ID in the United Kingdom.

Privacy International's research into the implications of
national identity cards has established that these initiatives
have no effect on the reduction of crime or fraud, but introduce
additional problems of discrimination, criminal false identity
and administrative chaos.

Privacy International's Director, Simon Davies, warned:

"The technology gap between governments and organised
crime has now narrowed to such an extent that even the most highly
secure cards are available as blanks weeks after their introduction.
Criminals and terrorists can in reality move more freely and
more safely with several fake "official" identities
than they ever could in a country using multiple forms of "low-value"
ID such as a birth certificate."

Criminal use of fake identity documents does not necessarily
involve the use of counterfeiting techniques. In 1999, a former
accountant was charged with obtaining up to 500 UK passports
under false identities. The scam was merely a manipulation of
the primary documentation procedure. This situation, warns Privacy
International, will extend to ID cards.

Mr Davies added:

"the ramifications of an ID card conform to the dynamics
of the black market economy. Whenever governments attempt to
introduce an ID card, it is always based on the aim of eliminating
false identity. The higher the stated "integrity" (infallibility)
of a card, the greater is its value to criminals and illegal
immigrants. A high-value card attracts substantially larger investment
in corruption and counterfeit activity. The equation is simple:
higher value ID equals greater criminal activity."

The government says a national ID card will combat the growing
problem of identity theft, in which a person's identity is fraudulently
acquired for criminal purposes. It is a huge problem in the US,
made all the worse because of the ubiquitous Social Security
Number. Critics of national ID proposals in the US have warned
that any central ID number massively increases the incidence
of identity theft. Privacy International supports this view,
and predicts that any national ID system will increase identity
theft in the UK to US proportions.

Privacy International believes that the proposal for a national
identity card has little to do with the government's stated objectives
of reducing the threat of crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.
Rather, the plan is part of a broader objective outlined in the
Cabinet Office report "Privacy & Data Sharing"
to create a new administrative basis for the linkage of government
databases and information systems.

NOTES TO EDITORS

- Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed
in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations.
PI is based in London, and has an office in Washington, D.C.
Together with members in 40 countries, PI has conducted campaigns
throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national
security activities, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching,
police information systems, and medical privacy, and works with
a wide range of parliamentary and inter-governmental organisations
such as the European Parliament, the House of Lords and UNESCO.

- PI's website is www.privacyinternational.org It contains
an extensive resource in the "issues" page on identity
cards.

- Simon Davies can be reached at simon@privacy.org and on
07958 466 552

3. Home Office press release

ENTITLEMENT CARDS AND IDENTITY FRAUD CONSULTATION DOCUMENT
PUBLISHED

Reference: 187/2002 - Date: 3 Jul 2002 15:38

A consultation paper to assess whether the public would find
an entitlement card useful to access services and effective in
tackling illegal immigration was published today by the Home
Office.

The paper sets out practical options for an entitlement card.
These include using existing photocard driving licences and UK
passports to avoid duplication of existing documents. Such a
scheme would not involve setting up a new organisation and systems
from scratch, meaning instead that people who already held a
passport or a driving licence would not need to have an extra
form of identification. For those who hold neither, a new card
would be available issued to the same standard of identity checks.

The Government has rejected the option of a card which would
be compulsory to carry and any changes to police powers.

Proposals in the consultation paper include:

a universal scheme where everyone would have to register and
have a card but there would be no requirement to carry it;

a voluntary scheme which people could opt-into;

a scheme which could be targeted at particular groups, rather
than the population as a whole;

how a scheme might be enacted in legislation;

whether there should be a unique personal number associated with
each holder of an entitlement card and whether this should be
a new or existing number (such as the National Insurance Number).

The consultation paper looks at the pros and cons of each
of these proposals and different types of entitlement card scheme.

It seeks views on potential uses which include: more effective
ways to access services; combating illegal immigration and illegal
working more effectively; a convenient travel card in Europe;
a proof of age card; a way of tackling identity fraud; a card
to promote new ways of voting and a way of fostering citizenship.

Views will also be sought on important issues such as cost,
privacy and duplication of existing documents.

A study on identity fraud carried out by the Cabinet Office
was also published today. It assesses the scale and nature of
the problem, which is estimated to cost the economy more than
£1.3 billion a year. It concludes that a combination of
measures is needed to tackle the problem effectively; more secure
processes for issuing documents used as evidence of ID; stronger
checks of ID at point of use; and a more co-ordinated approach
to detection and prosecution of ID fraud.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said:

"I have made it clear that the introduction of an entitlement
card would be a major step and that we will not proceed without
consulting widely and considering all the views expressed very
carefully. I want to see a far-reaching and meaningful public
debate on the issue of entitlement cards, and a vigorous response
from all parts of the community.

"Following the events of September 11th there was a call
to introduce a type of "identity card" system.
We said we would not be giving a knee-jerk reaction in the wake
of this terrorism and we have stuck to that.

"We want to hear first and foremost from the public on
whether they feel an entitlement card would be useful to them
and to which services they would want it to give access.

"The Government's position is neutral and what direction
we take in policy terms will be informed by the extensive consultation
process we will be undertaking over the next six months.

"I am not going to disguise my own enthusiasm for an
entitlement card system, but it is for the public to decide whether
or not this is something they would see as useful and making
their lives easier.

"Identity fraud currently costs the taxpayer over £1.3
billion every year and there is no doubt that a secure universal
card could play a part in reducing that bill. Equally, entitlement
cards could be an important tool in cracking down on illegal
immigration and illegal working, reducing the pull-factor to
the UK to people trafficking gangs.

"As criminals become increasingly sophisticated at stealing
or forging identities we have to position ourselves to respond,
using biometrics and cutting edge technology as one way to defeat
them.

"The Government's final proposal will of course depend
on the views of the people of the United Kingdom received during
the course of this consultation."

The entitlement card consultation paper seeks views on a range
of issues including:

Would an entitlement card assist in preventing clandestine
presence in Britain, illegal working and avoiding the development
of an underclass who are paid less than the minimum wage, have
no access to rights and decent conditions at work and are therefore
open to exploitation and pay no tax and National Insurance?

Whether the existing checks before issuing passports and driving
licences are sufficiently secure to combat the increasing sophistication
of fraudsters?

Whether biometric information such as fingerprints or iris
images should be recorded - to prevent people establishing multiple
false identities to defraud public services or to advance their
involvement in major organised crime?

Would an entitlement card system help to prevent identity
fraud?

Would service providers including local authorities find it
useful to allow access to their services through a card system?

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The consultation paper on entitlement cards has a six month
consultation period. Responses to the document should be sent
to the Home Office by 10 January 2003.
2. The document and the Cabinet Office report on identity fraud
is available on the website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dob/ecu.htm

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